Title Fourteenth Year of Chenghua (Tome 3).docx ✅

1 The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua (Tome 3) Written by Meng Xi Shi Original Chinese work (c) 2014-2015 Unofficial translation (c) 12/21/2020 - 01/14/2022 by Huang “Chichi” Zhifeng Both versions are protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Reposts are not permitted in any capacity. (No, not anywhere, no matter who you are, and no matter what you think you’re doing.) If you have found this translation anywhere except chichilations.home.blog, ko- fi.com/chichilations, or the huangzhifengtheosprey Google Drive, it has been stolen. There is absolutely no authorization for it to be posted anywhere else, especially not any site that charges money for access to those translations or has ads. I have never required payment to access any translations that I do, nor have I ever claimed ad revenue. Anyone else claiming my translation as theirs is fraudulent. Check the dates, eh? If you’re going to steal a translation, steal it from a machine. They don’t have feelings. Stealing from an anonymous bird on the internet is pretty… yeah. The original work was published on jjwxc. This translation was published originally on Wordpress. Translator Contact Information chichilations.home.blog ~ ko-fi.com/chichilations ~ [email protected] The blog is the source site, and the ko-fi has plans for further translations, though it’s a space solely for my original works, otherwise. Please send any inquiries, bug reports, typos, etc. regarding the translation to my email. Also let me know if anyone has reuploaded this translation elsewhere, especially if they’re redistributing it in epub/pdf format; I can and have dealt with them before, I’ll do it again. Ancient Chinese Units of Measurements, for your reading convenience shichen: one of the 12 two-hour time periods ancient Chinese folks used instead of hours cun: equivalent to 3⅓ cm li: equivalent to ½ a km chi: equivalent to ⅓ m zhang: equivalent to 3⅓ m catty: equivalent to 604.79g tael: equivalent to 37.8g Translator’s Foreword Welcome to the fanmade translation of The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua! This was originally an EPUB. I retired those originally, hoping that would prompt more official ebooks and translations. That didn’t quite go as planned, so now I made them hard to copy. Lessons learned, yadda yadda yadda. It’s not perfect, is less interactive than the blog (I like seeing comments :( ), and is missing
2 translator/author notes (for now), but GDocs does prevent copying and downloading. It’s the most I can do. (Don’t request edit access. Those emails go straight to the trash.) FYC is too massive for GDocs to handle, so I had to split it into four ‘Tomes’. Why did I name them Tomes instead of Parts? Because my name’s Chichi and the definition of chichi is ‘pretentious and overelaborate refinement’. That’s your explanation, bye. Here is a content warning for the whole book: pretty much every arc involves one or more dead bodies, so you can imagine the details surrounding it are not pleasant, and this time period is rife with sexism and double-standards. Be sure to buy the work from JJWXC, or donate directly to the author. If you lack in money, you can still contribute to the author’s works by viewing all the chapters that you can, liking everything, giving high ratings, and commenting (in Chinese only, or it’ll be auto-deleted). This helps their algorithms on jjwxc. It’s free to do this, so please do. JJWXC Raws — In-Depth English JJWXC-buying Guide
3 The Case of Weining Sealet 86: A Difficult Question at the Banquet Consort Wan’s favor having not waned for decades was a miracle. She might have been charming during her youth, but she was now over fifty years old. No matter how much of a world-toppling beauty she was, that couldn’t conceal the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, and due to her gradual aging, she was putting on weight, the slimness she’d had in her earlier years not to be spoken of in the same breath. Even so, it was such a woman that had captured the Emperor’s heart, several decades passing like just one day. Perhaps it had not been because of her that the Emperor had stopped favoring harem women. After the Crown Prince had come to light before all, the Emperor had relaxed his own restrictions even further, having sons one after the other, though that didn’t at all lower the important spot Consort Wan had in his heart. She was an unparalleled existence in his life, where the older he got, the more he heeded her. It could make anyone click their tongue in astonishment. That might merely be a rare romance story in the palace, but to some people, it was an asset to be utilized. Take her little brother, Wan Tong, for example. His collusion with the Southside Gang from last time had nearly caused the children of major Dynasty officials to be trafficked, creating such a huge mess, even Consort Wan hadn’t been able to protect him. Out of anger, the Emperor had taken away his post, ordering him to return home and reflect upon himself. Still, with that great big sister that he had, everything would be fine for him regardless of what happened. In the blink of an eye, the Emperor’s anger had thereafter vanished, and he felt that his in-laws were more reliable than average, so he had called him back to reinstate him as the Brocade Guard’s Commanding Envoy. People that had good things happen to them would be ecstatic, and this was coinciding with Wan Tong’s fiftieth birthday. The Emperor even joked that life was half-complete at fifty, so there was no harm in throwing a big thing for it; with his weighty words, Wan Tong naturally held no scruples, straight-up ordering his Estate to go nuts in setting things up. The invitations had been sent to every official in the capital that was over fifth-rank, purely in a posture of getting ready to catch everyone with one net. Just imagine; that Wan Tong, a consort-kin of no merits that had not grown wise with age, could still have high officials visit him for his longevity celebration… what a flattering, majestic thing. Many dissented, but when they heard that even the Cabinet Solons were going to show their faces, they felt that not going would be too conspicuous, so they were forced to grit their teeth and attend the party. Today, the Wan Estate could be described as having brilliant friends filling its seats, dazzling brightly. Looking all around, those that sat at the head table — apart from the birthday gentleman — were the three Solons, as well as three Ministers. On the table nearby, there sat a specially- bestowed gift, given by the Emperor when he had heard of his brother-in-law’s birthday. In addition to those few, bystanders could see from a distance a couple powerful figures that had shown up before the Emperor recently: Transmissions Officer Li Zhisheng of the Office of Transmissions, and Chief Eunuch of the Eastern Depot, Shang Ming, who was as equally famous to and in a bitter rivalry with Wang Zhi.
4 With the Eastern Depot’s status, Shang Ming was able to sit at the head table. This was not shocking; had Wang Zhi come today, Wan Tong would have had to invite him to the head table, too. However, Li Zhisheng was a fourth-rank Transmissions Officer, yet was sitting with high officials and technical-royals — that drew quite a bit of interest. Today, guests filled the gates, horses and carriages flowing like water, the doorkeep’s hands going soft from all the red envelopes being taken at the doors. As it came to be later, whenever he saw someone he didn’t recognize or was of a lower rank, he wouldn’t even bother to smile, looking at people much like he would plates of food. Guests being a bit bothersome would make his nose quickly go askew in anger. No one was going to come by wearing their official’s uniform on such an occasion. The people Tang Fan came with were those who had been in Hanlin with him back in the day. Even though they all had come from more or less the same circumstances, their later encounters had been individually different. Some had become lecturers at the East Palace and were giving lessons to the Crown Prince, some were still simmering their qualifications in Hanlin, and some had entered the Six Ministries and Five Courts, like Tang Fan. However, after these few years, it was Tang Fan that had been promoted the quickest. The reason for that was that his luck had had its ups and downs, and perils had sprung up in his life, making his road incomparable to those of others’. As was said, the higher the risks were, the higher the rewards. Those with capabilities would eventually be able to occupy high positions. Outsiders, naturally, had nothing to say about this. Tang Fan was a loyal man, too, and would help in any way that he possibly could if anything happened with his yearmates. Whenever others were in dire financial straits, he would hand his own funds over without another word. That behavior of helping those in need out of righteousness was not something just anyone could imitate. Thus, despite everyone’s teasing, none of them were envious, instead vaguely following his lead. Capital officials were poorer than abroad officials. This was a bizarre phenomenon in the Great Ming, and especially true for Tang Fan and the rest, who were in ‘clearwater’ bureaus that didn’t take in much gray income. They, inevitably, had no way to compare to high officials, which made their gifts comparatively simple. The doorkeep was used to accepting gifts, unable to judge their weight once they entered his hand. Seeing that the names on all of their invitations were nothing special, he arranged for them to sit at a table near the door. “He’s really as self-important as his master!” Xie Qian joked in a whisper. “Whatever. We were reluctant to come here, anyways,” Wang Ao said with a grin. “Those gifts were an exchange for the food, which is a profit for us!” They all couldn’t resist laughing at that — wasn’t it true? Looking at this present setup, there was definitely going to be abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, and swim bladders, with one table having to cost hundred taels, at least. That their worthless gifts could be payment for this meal was a steal. A few sat at remnant tables, the scene now bustling restlessly. Most officials of low rank, after coming in, would successively go to the head table to pay respects to the Solons and Ministers, but not all did so; some were like Tang Fan’s group, who sat right down after their arrival, waiting for the banquet to begin. There were too many people, regardless, and no one could keep track of anyone. Perhaps even those Solons at the head table couldn’t keep track of who had come to pay respects to them.